Rudenstine was going to be the first president to make an official Harvard visit to Latin America. But when he took three months off to nurse himself back to health, the trip was cancelled.

That excursion, which had been planned for January 1995, did not materialize until March 2004, when Summers jetted off to Latin America for spring break.

In Santiago, Summers met with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and members of his cabinet. He also addressed the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean on the importance of teaching and research at universities.

And in Sao Paulo, Summers met with former Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso and also delivered a major speech.

During a year in which he visited London and Davos, Switzerland, the Latin American trip highlighted the increasingly international role Summers has played as University president.

“I think that one of the really important transitions underway is towards becoming a more global university,” he said at the time. “Inevitably, that will mean that University leaders will travel more widely than they have in the past.”

He added that Harvard has a broader role to play in society, not only abroad, but in the United States as well.

This year, he put a little money where his mouth is, committing $2 million to addressing what he calls “our greatest domestic concern today”—inequality.

The initiative—which eliminated the student financial aid contribution for families with incomes under $40,000 and reduced it for families with incomes between $40,000 and $60,000—was rolled out to much fanfare at the annual conference of the American Council of Education in Miami this February.

“We want to send the strongest possible message that Harvard is open to talented students from all economic backgrounds,” Summers told the conference. “We are determined to change both the perception and the reality.”

After the speech, Summers launched an aggressive media campaign to publicize the initiative, going on NPR and speaking with a wide range of other media outlets. He has also touted the initiative and addressed the issue of economic inequality in countless speeches since February.

Summers had purchased a spate of positive publicity and a few more turns in the national media.

With affirmative action up for the first major challenge in its 25-year history, Summers co-wrote an op-ed in The New York Times with Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law Laurence H. Tribe ’62. Tribe also authored a friend-of-the-court brief—co-signed by seven other universities—trumpeting Harvard’s policy in urging the Court to uphold the University of Michigan’s policy.

Facing an across-the-board drop in graduate admissions from abroad this spring, Summers fired off public letters to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge ’67, pressing them to address the bottleneck in student visas that was deterring applicants from coming to Harvard and other American schools.

Summers says “there was a very clear need to bring public pressure to bear” on visas because “it was an issue directly affecting Harvard’s competitiveness internationally.” He adds that he was “encouraged by those within the government” to push forward on the issue.